Churches and charities yet to opt in to redress scheme

A national redress scheme was one of the major recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The scheme is offering counselling and compensation up to $150,000 for survivors of institutional abuse and is planned to begin on 1 July 2018. The proposed legislation will also require individual institutions to directly respond to the allegations if the survivor requests this.

There are concerns that non-state institutions such as churches and charities, states and territories have not yet joined the national redress scheme. This means some survivors may not be able to access compensation under the scheme. CLAN is currently campaigning to have these bodies join the scheme before 1 April, with Ms. Sheedy stating that “any church or charity who refused to sign up should lose its tax-free status”.

PM urges non-state bodies to sign up

Mr. Turnbull used today’s announcement to urge non-state organisations, and state and territories to join the national scheme. The issue will further be discussed with State and Territory leaders at this week’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting. Mr Shorten, Leader of the Opposition has echoed the Prime Ministers sentiments, asking both states and non-state organisations to focus on providing justice to survivors.

The national apology may be a welcome step, but survivors have made it clear that the institutions themselves must be held responsible for their abuse. This is the way they wish to seek justice for the past failures to protect them, and to hold these institutions accountable.

*Clara Harper is is currently undertaking a seasonal clerkship with RCT.